A Sea Change in School Discipline

The 2015 June Fox Lecturer, Dan Losen (Lesley '87), found in his research that a growing number of schools are exploring less punitive ways to manage student behavior after studies showed that harsh policies disproportionately affect African American and Latino students.

Dan Losen's Research Finds There are More Effective, and Less Harsh, Ways to Discipline Students

During his first month as a grade-school teacher, Dan Losen sent a dozen kids to the principal’s office to be disciplined. The principal finally took him aside and said, “Dan, you’re losing your authority with these kids.” Losen knew she was right. Fortunately his school required training in classroom management. By his last year of teaching, he says, “It never occurred to me to send kids to the principal’s office.”

Losen received training and support, but not every teacher is so fortunate. In urban school districts across the country, overwhelmed teachers are sending more students to the principal’s office, and more principals are punishing students—often for minor infractions—with out-of-school suspensions. More than 2 million middle and high school students were suspended during the 2009-2010 school year. That’s 1 out of every 9 students.

Suspension was once viewed as a policy of last resort—a tool to remove violent students from school. All that changed in the 1990s with zero-tolerance discipline policies, which often forced principals to exclude students for lesser offenses including dress-code violations, cell phone use, and swearing.

“Suspending students isn’t a solution,” says Losen, who holds an M.Ed. from Lesley University and now directs the Center for Civil Rights Remedies at the University of California at Los Angeles. “If suspension worked, we’d see improvements in academic achievement or higher graduation rates, but we’re not seeing that.”

Instead, Losen’s research shows an unintended consequence: higher suspension rates for students of color and those with disabilities. “These students are among the most vulnerable, the most at risk for dropping out and getting into trouble with the law,” he says. “And when you don’t finish school, your life opportunities are severely diminished.”

Losen and others argue that the problem isn’t the students—who, along with their families, face the daily pressures of poverty, crime, discrimination, unemployment, and lack of health care. The problem is the adults—poorly prepared classroom teachers and school officials adhering to zero-tolerance policies. [continued below]

"Losen’s work at the Civil Rights Project at UCLA serves as a stark reminder of the systematic impact of bias toward our youngest and most vulnerable children. The sheer numbers of children of color who are subject to excessive discipline and ultimately funneled into the school to prison pipeline is in itself a form of state-sanctioned neglect. Armed with proper data, some districts have acted and made a difference. My hope is all who attend [the 2015 June Fox] lecture will join in extending that difference."

Jonathon Gillette, Dean, Lesley Graduate School of Education

“When
kids misbehave, it’s a sign they’re not engaged, that they’re
struggling. But these students are written off as incapable of
learning, or ‘bad,’” Losen says. Urban schools often don’t have the
resources, or have not made it a priority, to get to the bottom of why
kids aren’t learning, he says. “The easiest path is suspension, so
schools don’t have to provide services.”

Losen uses the power of data—including
rates of suspension, dropout, graduation, arrest, and other
indicators—to raise awareness of the consequences of harsh disciplinary
measures. To make the data available to more school districts, the
Center for Civil Rights Remedies launched a new web tool
that sorts U.S. Department of Education data on suspension by race,
ethnicity, gender, English learner, and disability status across
nation’s districts.

Policymakers are starting to pay
attention. Michael Thompson, director of the Council of State
Governments Justice Center, was quoted in a news report
as saying, “Everybody recognizes that if we want to find ways to close
the achievement gap, we really need to look at the huge number of kids
being removed from school campuses who are not receiving any classroom
time.”

Slowly, through Losen’s work and that of
other reformers, school districts are beginning to modify or drop
punitive policies and are considering increased behavioral support for
students and training for teachers. These districts include Los
Angeles, Baltimore, Chicago, and Denver. Schools that have ended
zero-tolerance policies have already seen significant drops in
suspensions.

More districts are exploring alternative
practices for disciplining students. Among the promising alternatives
is “restorative justice,” which seeks to understand the underlying
factors causing the misbehavior. Restorative justice provides a safe
space for those in the school community to have a say in resolving the
conflict and determining the appropriate consequences. Instead of being
suspended, a student might be asked to write an apology or perform
community service or attend an intervention program.

While suspension often results in a
negative impact to the community—unsupervised students getting into
trouble and being arrested—restorative justice strengthens community.
“It aims to make the community whole,” Losen says. “It calls on the
community to understand and embrace the person, instead of shunning
him. It says: ‘We care about you, but we’re also holding you
accountable.’”

Losen points out that discipline starts
in the classroom. From his experience as a teacher, “If things aren’t
going well, it’s vital to look at what you’re doing that might be
contributing to the situation,” he says. His training helped identify
what he could do to manage his classroom more effectively. “I learned
that you need clear expectations of behavior, you need to catch kids
doing things right, and you need to invest in your relationship with
the kids and their parents.”

His research shows that improving
relationships with students pays off in dramatically reduced discipline
referrals, and ultimately, in the number of suspensions. “When we take
a more compassionate approach to disciplining students, while still
holding them accountable, we’ll begin to see changes to the tremendous
inequities in our educational system.”

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The June Fox Lecture Series is presented in honor of Dr. Fox, former dean at Lesley, and her commitment to teacher preparation. Throughout her career, she has worked untiringly to sustain a progressive vision of education in a diverse and democratic society. Read more...